Yuma, Arizona - The story goes that abolitionists Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton attended the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. Because they were women, they were barred from full participation. This is said to have prompted Mott and Stanton to birth America’s women’s rights movement.
Eight years later, on July 19,1848, they were joined by approximately 200 like-minded women at the first women’s rights conference in Seneca Falls, NY. Stanton opened the event with a Declaration of Sentiments and Grievances, which stated: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal…”
Recommended reading about the women’s rights movement: Until We Win by Linda Newbery.